Damn anime fandom, when will you finally realize that light novels are trash and you need to stop hyping them?

Mahouka (short version of the title) was the next in line to be considered the best LN ever made, claims made by the same type of fans who two years ago were saying the exact same things for Sword Art Online (SAO for short). And once again it is proven how retarded and tasteless they all are, since the anime proved to be just as bad. In fact, it proved to be even worse than SAO! But more on that later.

This is where the first grip of the show begins. The main conflict regards the discrimination students have in that school, as they are separated into castes depending on their magic powers. The privileged ones are having all the fun, while the less fortunate by genes are treated like errant boys. It looks interesting at first but then you realize that Tatsuya, the protagonist, is OVERPOWERED AS HELL! They try to make him seem like his magic potential is low and thus belongs to the lower caste, but he has mastered so many types of martial arts and magical combinations that he can LITERALLY defeat anyone in half a second.

Just like most light novels do, the protagonist is basically wish fulfillment for introverts. We are special, we are awesome, but our society doesn’t appreciate us, everybody is against us, so we will show them what we can do, and win all the time, and have all the girls call us awesome. Taken to the extremes in Mahouka, Tatsuya begins as a new guy who is supposed to be just another Weed (lower caste), that all the Blooms (higher caste) make fun of. But in just a few seconds worth of conflict, he obliterates his bullies, and makes his classmates to be amazed with him. And that seems to be ok as far as teen empowerment goes, but the problem is that there is no real threat to make us believe he achieved something worthy of our praise.

Having an OP main character is the death of any story, period. There is nothing the rest of the cast can do if he is around and in this case HE IS AROUND ALL THE TIME. Just imagine that in an episode we are allowed to have a duel between two girls, just because Tatsuya didn't bother to capture the bad girl himself in a fraction of a second. Other stories will try to make it seem like the MC can die, or focus on other characters for awhile, or at least not make it seem like it’s all too easy. But not here. Here it is all about Tatsuya doing everything effortlessly and everybody being amazed with him. So no matter whatever the plot is about, there is no tension or exploration of themes, since you know exactly what will happen. Tatsuya will go in, and win effortlessly.

The first arc is about terrorists who want equality attacking the school. Because equality is evil all of a sudden. After the super awesome protagonist wipes them all out without even bothering to smirk, the police arrives, arrests everybody, and he returns to his normal school life like nothing much has happened. We can’t have him being rewarded, that would end the story. So what is the second arc about? A school contest! We literally moved from a terrorist attack to teenagers playing sports where they of course need to be explaining every little thing they make. That is plain insufferable. So what happens there? They do games for honor and bullshit, and again the awesome protagonist wipes them all out without even bothering to smirk. Third arc, evil China invades good Japan for livberty or some bullshit. The awesome protagonist wipes them all out without even bothering to smirk. Do you see a pattern here?

Even though the notorious SAO shares the same bad writing, bad exposition, bad characterization, and bad EVERYTHING when it comes to light novels, it at least fools you for awhile to think there is danger in its setting. The characters there were average people trapped in a deadly environment, cut off from their house and family, having to fight monsters in order to survive. Mahouka doesn’t have that; it is just a school where pampered high school kids with super magical skills gather and act like jerks to each other, while teachers and parents pay for their rent and luxury. So the only thing you get in this show is a guy effortlessly brushing off a few school bullies, under the surveillance of the teachers. There is literally nothing to feel excited about.

School settings in general are sapping away all tension and ruin the atmosphere. They are supposed to be there to offer a haven and familiarity for teenagers but at the same time raise endless questions of the sort “Why does everything happen the way it does, and why the adults don't do anything to stop it?” And the answer is a simple “because adults are terrible people who create unjust societies, and only we, the hormone-crazy teenagers, can do the right thing by smacking the crap out of everything.”

Furthermore, the themes are not even presented properly. For a society that runs on meritocracy, the mages of that school are all rare and gifted. There is little reason for the Weeds to feel bad, if they have powers that place them above every other mundane person. And even the most gifted of them, the Blooms, are acting like they are constantly threatened by the Weeds, as if their position can be snatched away if the errant boys try really hard and surpass them. If they really are superior, they shouldn’t feel threatened. And if hard work can indeed make Weeds surpass Blooms, then they shouldn’t have casts to begin with. These double standards are very easy to spot and because there is a lack of an actually threatening conflict, you are not even distracted from realizing that. This is what makes this plain bad fantasy empowerment.

What adds oil to the fire is the sister of the protagonist. She is TOTALLY obsessed with her brother, to the point she repeats the word “onii-sama” (translated as super awesome revered brother) at least a dozen times per episode. She is basically stalking him and doesn’t want any other girl near him, or any other boy to antagonize him. She is so obsessed to the point he has the hots for him. It is cringe-worthy if you are not into that, and yet it is one of the running gags of the show. IT NEVER GOES AWAY! Sadly the ones who hyped this title were all into the exact same things I and many others don't like in the show. It is teen escapism in its most basic and silly of forms. And it works for those who want all the girls to love them for being special and introverts. Sisters included.

Another thing that makes the show bad is its lack of action. For a setting that is all about mages and battles, there is very little actual fighting going on in it. The plot is almost entirely about talking and explaining than showing motion. For example, there is a scene where we have a duel. The battle lasts about 3 seconds, as Tatsuya is as OP as it gets. The next 15 minutes are spent on explaining how he did it by combining spells and martial arts. It may seem like that makes it strategic and smart, but what practically happens is you watching people standing still and talking with weird terminology just to explain how that battle was over before it even began. It is simply not fun. It is boring, anti-climactic, and it ends with everybody saying how awesome the protagonist is for winning effortlessly.

I understand how that can work much better in text form. The passing of time is very relevant when you read something, and from what I understand, the descriptions in the novels are using fancy terminology to make everything seem complicating and smart. This doesn't show in the adaptation, where we can tell how much time it takes to say something, as well as not using a narrator to simply infodump everything in third person. The closest effect to what could have happened if they had included it, would be internal monologues of the sort we see in Bakemonogatari, or Tatami Galaxy, or Haruhi. But even that demands for a first person narration, while the novels are mostly in third. In other words, it is bad storytelling, masked with fancy words, appealing to easily satisfied teenagers, which doesn’t translate well when adapted to tv format.

The saddest part is that the budget is actually very high. Madhouse is the king of anime, and yet not even that could save the show from being bad. If you want to watch it just for the pretty visuals and the teen empowerment, at least it is satisfactory on a superficial level. But if you watch it for any sort of depth or good characterization, you will be greatly disappointed. There is nothing particularly good in Mahouka, and only manages to further prove how pre-airing hype only exists to mutate the reputation of what could have been a forgettable mediocre title, to that of an abomination we will always be using as an example of what a bad anime is all about.

Hello Mahouka, how are you? Here, sit next to your best friend, SAO. Feeling comfortable enough? Yes? Ok… GUYS GAG THEM! GRAB THEIR FEET! WATCH OUT, HE IS TRYING TO GET AWAY! WHERE IS THE ROPE? BRING THE TAR!

@HarioSagara: "I have to wonder what you're basing your standards of OP on because from my perspective, Tatsuya was one of the most OP if not the most OP main character I've ever seen. Quick look at his repetoire of abilities- Highly skilled in hand to hand combat, able to dismantle opponents weapons with a thought, able to catch bullets from assault rifles, top class engineer, able to reset his body and anyone else's bodies if they're ever critically injured, and finally the ability to fire bullets that disintigrate anything instantly. He takes OP to new levels of OPness, lol."

His OPness came with a price though. Anytime he reset his body or anyone else's body he had to experience the pain they went through in a manner that was nearly 3x the speed they felt it. In actuality, you would think that wouldn't be so bad, but then you have to taken into consideration it was his mind processing the pain and not his body, so the ideal that going through pain quickly is easier than dealing with the pain slowly (i.e. like ripping off a band-aid rather than slowly removing it) doesn't apply here because the pain is not only physical, but mental as well. For the one thing that he was great at, he couldn't be good at anything else. His body couldn't handle being able to use other forms of magic which is why he resorted to using engineering as he means. He isn't as much of a decent fighter as people are thinking, most of his abilities comes from reading body language incredibly quickly and acting accordingly or making weapons/equipment that could make things easier for him.

I think a lot of people miss the fact that he is only actually really good at one thing in particular, even the characters have openly stated it, but it's how he goes about the one that he's good at that makes him seem OP. I have yet to see anyone claim that his sister is OP when she has the ability to freeze someone to death. Not only that, but her abilities are higher ranking than his are in terms of magic. Not to also mention that while she gets her equipment created and maintained by him, for the most part, most of the other characters can really handle it as best as she could.

Long story short, his "OP" is a double edged sword for him and thus, actually, negates the idea of him being OP.

@TheAngelofDeath I see where you're coming from with your comment but I have to disagree on a couple of points. You said, "From what I gather you didn't see this show to the very end and stopped before most of his powers were even revealed and even at that point I didn't think he was too OP which to me tells me your standards for OP are extremely low" I have to wonder what you're basing your standards of OP on because from my perspective, Tatsuya was one of the most OP if not the most OP main character I've ever seen. Quick look at his repetoire of abilities- Highly skilled in hand to hand combat, able to dismantle opponents weapons with a thought, able to catch bullets from assault rifles, top class engineer, able to reset his body and anyone else's bodies if they're ever critically injured, and finally the ability to fire bullets that disintigrate anything instantly. He takes OP to new levels of OPness, lol.

One of the main reasons Roricon compares this to SAO is the overpowerdness of the main characters, but even Kirito falls drastically short compared to Tatsuya's overpowerdness. Other than that though it's true that these shows don't have much else in common with each other.

As far as Death Note is concerned, Light and L are both highly intelligent indiviiduals but the reason that show is so awesome is that they are constantly challenging each other's intelligence and skills throughout the show. As opposed to Tatsuya's rival, the "prince" Ichijou who it takes him all of one episode to defeat.

The part of Roricon's review I disagree with the most is where he says there is a lack of action. If you watch the show through to the end you see that there actually is quite a few action scenes in this anime. While some of these action scenes look cool enough with explosions and cool magical effects, there's still a severe lack of excitement in the scenes due to the fact that Tatsuya is basically invincible and able to obliterate everyone.

Forgive me for I shall have to be rude, but this review was painful to read... Extremely painful to read. but alas I bore through it and read your review. Everyone is entitled to their opinion you and me so here's mine. Rather than a review this can be classified as a rant. For starters though I will agree with you the main character is overpowered but this doesn't always ruin a show. From what I gather you didn't see this show to the very end and stopped before most of his powers were even revealed and even at that point I didn't think he was too OP which to me tells me your standards for OP are extremely low, and or your so unbelieveably biased towards this anime in general thats you've unknowningly blinded yourself to whats really going on. He is really revealed to be OP much later on in the Anime much further than you ventured. But anyways moving on.

Much of your review was you comparing this Anime to SAO (Sword Art Online) which in some cases was relevant but in most cases not even close. To me it just sounds like your forcing the two together to create a simliar feeling of hatred towards both Animes. Not in a comedic way either which I believe would be pretty obvious if you were, either that or you have a not so good sense of humor. Either way because of this "Extreme Bias" (because everyone is biased to a certain degree and this can't be helped but some are way off the minimum mark) I find that most of the evidence and opinion about this anime you bring to the table tremendously looses its meaning which takes away and eventually destroys your review altogether. If you want to warn someone of a bad Anime do it as best you can. This isn't about yourself its about others reviews are meant to help others in deciding which Animes to watch. In a review you look for both bad AND good things in an anime as best you can. 99% was dedicated to the bad which unfortunely changes this from a "review" to a super subjective rant of hatred. why "hatred"? for one thing. "Insults" You should never have to rely on insults to convey a message to a group of people that something is bad. Doing so could mean a couple of things. That your not creative with words, that said thing enrages you to the point were such words are the best way to convey your feelings towards a subject, or you suffer severely from a "band waggon effect" that comes from your daily life that normally consists of said words used daily or said thoughts you think of daily creating that "you" on the inside but not the out.

As far as I can tell about you saying it "doesn't have enough action" I think that is also something you simply assumed that this anime was going to be. Look at some of the greatest animes out there (by normal rating standards) Death Note little to NO ACTION on each episode but A LOT OF TALKING, yet it still got to the top of the charts of the most exciting animes. So why? Its because of plot and story, this is no different. So why have you not reviewed Death Note in the same way? Because its not related to that other Anime you hate so much SAO. Because it has no relation you don't hate it, which COMPLETELY changes the way you will watch it and enjoy it compared to this one. If SAO never existed could you swear to me this review would be the same? Sadly no it wouldn't be.

As I said before everyone is entitled to their own opinion on things and I hate to be rude with this next statement but rudeness is not something your too worried about based off whats written in this review so I shall treat you the same way which you wish to be treated. Even though this probably won't happen and you will ignore it. I please urge you to remove this review, if not please rewrite and revise it as best you can. If not for me but for others who may or may not be poisoned by your extreme bias towards all SAO related animes. You scare new people away from good Animes like this without good cause. Lucky though most of them are smart and will come to realize that that "one" review that they saw was completely inaccurate and will come to watch it anyway. I say this because I myself have experienced this one too many times. I'm now at the point were I only read reviews that are 7 and higher just to avoid utter biasism and pure hatred before I look at the lower ones first.

Just saying this beforehand if you respond to my comment please do it as respectfully and logically as you can. If I read any unnecessary insults or bad slurs of any kind on my page I will delete it without hesitation fair warning sorry to judge based off what I'm reading here but thats the kind of person your making yourself out to be.

I almost got two paragraphs in before giving up on your review. Strike one was the use of "retarted and tasteless" in the same sentence to describe what you are reviewing, which I can't help but see as ironic (I'll give you a hint, using the word retarted in a review is pretty tasteless). Strike two was stating that all light novels are trash because someone said two light novels you didn't like were the best light novels ever. I could use the same logic to say all anime is trash because I felt Please Twins and Please Teacher were terrible even though someone on Reddit said they were the best two animes ever made. Third strike was when I noticed that this review was written before 6 episodes had even aired of a 26 episode anime. Let’s try not to waste everyone’s time with pointlessly long diatribes in the future. kkthxbye

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